Brentford U18’s fell to a 2-1 defeat to Leyton Orient at Buckhurst Hill FC on Saturday in the side's third EFL South East Youth Alliance League fixture of the season.

Two first half goals proved enough for the hosts to claim all three points despite a strong second half performance from Brentford which saw the side score a late goal.

Lydia Bedford made just three changes to the team that faced Lommel SK B in Belgium on Tuesday afternoon with Connor Wolfheimer, Konstantin Ivanov and a trialist all introduced to the starting line-up.

The young Bees found themselves a goal down early on after Orient winger, Terome Thomas, found himself in space 25 yards out with his shot taking a deflection before the ball looped over Wolfheimer.

Brentford nearly replied instantly when Kaya Halil also tried his luck from distance, but the attacking midfielder’s curled effort went just over the bar.

The opening half-hour saw Brentford enjoy spells of possession but similar to their previous league fixtures, the young side struggled to create any clear-cut chances when the ball progressed to the final third.

The visitors saw their best chance of the half come on 35 minutes when a trialist latched onto a loose Orient pass and found himself in behind the host's defence.

The forward played a cut-back pass to Emeka Peters who saw his powerful strike take a deflection before flying over the bar.

Bedford’s side ended the half positively and were finding most of their joy come down the left flank with Ivanov and Peters linking up well.

Peters came close again just before the break when Ivanov played a neat ball down the line before the Brentford youngster carried the ball inside, but Peters' shot was straight at the Orient keeper.

The home team scored a second moments before the half-time whistle was blown when Thomas Avgoustidis got in behind the Brentford back-line and tucked his close-range shot into the net.

Brentford switched to a back three following the break as Yaw Agyei made way for Kerron Samuels who added extra protection at the back.

The young Bees made a quick start to the half and nearly pulled a goal back only for a trialist’s powerful strike from inside the box to be saved excellently by Orient’s Lenny Holden.

With 20 minutes to go Bedford introduced her remaining substitutes with her side responding well to this change, as the visitors pulled one back on 77 minutes.

Trae Payet displayed some good work on the right channel before finding Ollie Shield who flicked the ball onto a trialist allowing the forward to turn the ball home.

Brentford piled on some late pressure on but were unable to find an equaliser as the U18 side were defeated

Brentford U18s: Wolfheimer, Taylor (Payet, 67’), Ivanov (King, 55’), Grey, Asemokhai (Francis, 67’), Shield, Agyei (Samuels, 45’), Trialist, Halil, Peters (Djoro, 67’), Trialist

Leyton Orient U18s: Holden, St.Louis, Agyemang, Bullas, Hajdini, Imasuen, Avgoustidis, Welch, Oji, Mahmoud, Thomas

Subs: Archibald, Norman, Samuel, Juuti, Smith

Lydia Bedford’s thoughts

In a week which saw Brentford Under-18s put in a good performance against Belgian Under-21 outfit, Lommel SK, Bedford says she felt confident heading into Saturday’s game against Leyton Orient.

“I thought we did really well against Lommel in a game where we were the much junior side,” said Bedford. Results in the league haven’t gone our way so far so I was hoping we could take confidence from the trip to Belgium and bring that back to England.

“We were disappointed with how we started, we gave away an early goal and it looked like we weren’t at the races in the opening stages. We began to play our way into the game but then conceded a sloppy goal before half-time.”

The young side had it all to do in the second half after finding themselves 2-0 down at the break, Bedford went on to explain what her message was to the players at the interval.

Bedford spoke following the defeat to Orient

She said: “We had to make a change at the break because of an injury, but we also decided to change the formation, that gave us more opportunity to build from the back with numbers and I think we looked better on the ball in the second half as a result of that.

“I think it’s hard in this league when you find yourself two goals down, or even just a goal down, it’s really difficult to get back into the game as your opponent will look to do anything they can to slow the game down.”

The side’s next competitive fixture comes against Portsmouth U18s on Saturday 9 September in the Youth Alliance Cup.

The head coach feels it will be good to have two weeks to work with her team before the young Bees will play in their first cup fixture of the season on the south coast.

Bedford continued: “It will be nice to get the players back into the training ground and continue working with them ahead of the game against Portsmouth. We have been changing our formation quite often and even during games, so it will be good to take time and settle on what works best for the players.”